Caffeinated Politics

While the news was not surprising, given the current situation our nation finds itself in, it was still troubling.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has released 2025 vaccination data, revealing a decline in childhood vaccination rates.

Nearly seven in 10 children (66.9%) received recommended vaccinations by age 24 months, marking a nearly 2% drop from 2024, according to DHS.

“In public health, we use data like this as an alert system. Today that alert system is sending a clear signal that the health and well-being of Wisconsin kids and communities are at risk,” said Paula Tran, state health officer and Division of Public Health administrator. “Vaccination rates aren’t just numbers on a chart, they represent real people—children, families, and neighbors. Even small declines in vaccination rates increase the risk of preventable diseases spreading and outbreaks occurring.”

Adolescent vaccination rates showed slight decreases in vaccines like HPV and Tdap, while meningitis vaccinations increased. Adult vaccination rates remained steady.

Wisconsin’s childhood vaccination rates are falling at the very moment when science, logic, and basic moral responsibility demand they rise. Recent state data show that only about two‑thirds of Wisconsin children are fully vaccinated by age two, a decline that has accelerated in recent years. Coverage for essential vaccines like MMR and DTaP remains below national targets, and the state’s non‑medical exemption rate among kindergartners is higher than the U.S. median. Wisconsin’s non-medical vaccination exemption rate for kindergartners is among the highest in the U.S., with recent data showing a 6.3% rate, significantly exceeding the 4% U.S. median. This upward trend, largely driven by personal conviction waivers (5.2% as of recent reports), has contributed to lower-than-average immunization coverage and increased disease risk

These numbers are not abstract. They represent a weakening shield against diseases that spread quickly and hit vulnerable children hardest.

The science behind vaccination has been settled for decades. Vaccines train the immune system to recognize and fight dangerous pathogens before they can cause severe illness. When enough people in a community are vaccinated, herd immunity forms, creating a protective barrier that stops outbreaks before they start. For highly contagious diseases such as measles, the threshold must be above 95%. Wisconsin is nowhere near that level in many counties, and the consequences are already visible. The state has reported multiple measles cases in recent years, a disease that hospitalizes one in four infected people and kills one or two out of every thousand infected children, even with modern medical care.

Allow me to get preachy here. Falling vaccination rates are not just a scientific failure; they are a moral one. Some children cannot be vaccinated at all. Kids undergoing chemotherapy, children with primary immune deficiencies, and infants who are too young for certain vaccines rely entirely on the immunity of those around them. In other words, you and me. For these families, herd immunity is not a theoretical concept. It is the difference between safety and life‑threatening illness. When vaccination rates drop, these children lose the only protection they have. Their health becomes dependent on the choices of classmates, neighbors, and strangers, people they will never meet but whose decisions determine whether they stay healthy or end up in the hospital. I form my politics around a basic principle. We are our brother’s keepers.

Logic points in the same direction as ethics. High vaccination rates lead to low disease spread. Low vaccination rates lead to outbreaks. Outbreaks lead to preventable hospitalizations, disabilities, and deaths. This is not speculation; it is a pattern documented repeatedly in communities where immunization levels fall. Wisconsin’s declining rates correlate with rising exposures and outbreaks, and the math is brutally simple: if we want to prevent disease and protect vulnerable children, vaccination rates must rise, not fall.

The reasons behind the decline are well‑documented. The COVID‑19 pandemic disrupted routine pediatric care. Misinformation spread faster than public health messaging. Non‑medical exemptions became more common. Wisconsin also ranks near the bottom nationally in per‑capita public health funding, leaving local health departments stretched thin. These problems are solvable, but only if the state treats them with urgency and seriousness.

With the news today about our state’s declining vaccination rates, I was reminded of reading about the concept of progressive despotism. Around 1840 in Egypt, the leader, Muhammad Ali, decided that the plague, ‘angel of death’, had to be dealt with. Much of the populace was wedded to strict religious views that abhorred the then-modern views of how to constrain the disease. (Add in the horror that some of the medical advice had come from foreigners!) The evidence shows why a determined resolve that aligns with science matters.

In Alexandria in 1841, the plague killed over 5,800 people, but four years later, the death rate was recorded as zero. (Death rates and reliable numbers at that time were a crucial part of the solution.)

It is becoming apparent that tougher measures, a progressive despotism, if you will, and far less leniency from the government will be required to change behavior so vaccination rates increase. The vast majority of our society opts for science and logic. The shallow end of the pool must not be allowed to place people’s health at risk for conspiracy-driven whims.